When asked on whether it will hold North American railroad systems accountable to a previously-announced Sept. 2025 deadline to upgrade their communications technology in the hopes of improving rail safety – and whether there would be any penalties for not meeting that deadline – the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opted not to comment.
“We’ll decline comment,” FCC spokesperson Will Wiquist told Federal Newswire.
In May 2020, the FCC voted unanimously to transition the AAR’s existing 900 MHz band, used by the freight railroads for their legacy Advanced Train Control System (ATCS), so it could enable broadband.
Federal Newswire reported in May that the American Association of Railroads (AAR) told the FCC that its members would comply with the Sept. 2025 deadline to transition to new communications technology, enabling freight trains to finally access modern, high-bandwidth software applications that will improve safety.
In comments submitted to the FCC on May 2, the AAR wrote that its members planned to “complete the transition...by the Sept. 14, 2025 deadline” and that they would invest $110 million in equipment to accommodate the new standards, which it would move the industry off “1980’s technology.”
Recently, Ondas Networks, Inc. Chairman and CEO Eric Brock explained that while his company is happy to support the deadline in place, there are also “certain supply chain realities and without visibility on deployment plans in the new 900 MHz network, [and] we do see challenges on timelines.”
Currently, freight rail operators in North America communicate using low-speed 900 MHz two-way radios, akin to dial-up internet. And their communications don’t conform to common “802.16” wireless broadband standards developed to secure private wireless networks in other industries.
“The railroads agreed to the 900 MHz transition plan and have already made a significant investment in rail safety innovation with the new wider narrowband channels…and new waveforms (like 802.16). AAR has already spent more than $2 million over the past two years on testing and working to adapt the new 802.16 standards to the unique operational requirements of the rail industry,” wrote AAR attorney Michele C. Farquhar in a brief to the FCC.
Farquhar said the AAR expected the transition, which started in 2020 and will require the replacement of approximately 9,500 radios, to “improve existing rail network capacity constraints across its narrowband spectrum assets and accommodate new safety applications.”
Ondas Networks and Siemens Mobility have since partnered to develop and sell freight operators new wireless network technology and radios that meet the modern standards.
In Jan. 2023, the companies announced their first railroad order for radios in anticipation of the 2025 transition.
With the U.S. House of Representatives’ Transportation Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials having met in late July – soon after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a report explaining that mechanical failures and communications technology issues both caused and exacerbated the severity of the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment last year – a main focus is on preventing a similar event from happening again.
According to the AAR, since the NTSB released its preliminary findings on the derailment, railroads have applied lessons learned and taken significant steps that bolster safety and address what happened in the February 2023 incident – which included a multi-prong approach to enhance the effectiveness of wayside detectors and improve first responder preparedness and address tank car standards, in addition to the $23 billion that railroads invest annually in rail safety, employee training, infrastructure improvements and technological advancements.
North America has 136,667 miles of railroad track moving 1.6 billion tons of freight annually.
It is home to six “Class I” freight railroad companies – Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway, the Montreal-based Canadian National Railway, Calgary-based Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Jacksonville-Based CSX Transportation, Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern Railway and the Omaha-based Union Pacific Railroad. All are members of AAR.
